


Uncommon Ground (The Perspective 2012 Timestamp)

by ishafel



Category: Highlander: The Series
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-09-18
Updated: 2012-09-18
Packaged: 2017-11-14 12:06:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 601
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/515064
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ishafel/pseuds/ishafel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The trouble with the truth is that no one believes it until they've discovered it for themselves.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Uncommon Ground (The Perspective 2012 Timestamp)

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Perspective](https://archiveofourown.org/works/165527) by [Teresa_C](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Teresa_C/pseuds/Teresa_C). 



“...Three hours of my life I'll never have back,” Methos is saying, as the advertisement ends and the game starts back up. “It amazes me that someone with a finite lifespan would voluntarily see it more than once, never mind in 3-D.” He leans across the bar to grab a handful of pretzels, and sees Joe's face. Joe isn't listening, not to Methos, and not to the t.v. “Joe?”

Joe blinks, and pushes the pretzels closer. “Sorry, what were you saying?”

Methos sighs, the put-upon sigh of a man who knows that it wasn't anything worth repeating. “Nothing. Something wrong?”

“Not really,” Joe says quietly, not meeting Methos's eyes. “It's just, that _Titanic_ ad, it made me think of something you said once.”

“I wasn't actually on the _Titanic_. That was just to impress Amanda, you know.”

Joe doesn't laugh. “I know. You couldn't possibly have been everywhere you've said you were, Immortal or not. Besides, you hate ocean voyages.”

“Not ocean voyages. Drowning. What did I say about the _Titanic_ then? It must have been pithy and memorable.”

“Not the _Titanic_ ,” Joe says grimly. “Richie.”

“Richie Ryan?” Methos isn't sure about the connection. “I don't--.”

“It didn't have anything to do with the movie. Forget the damn movie! You said he wasn't the type that survives.”

All at once, Methos does remember. “Yeah. That was a shitty thing to say. I'm sorry.”

“But it was true, wasn't it? He's dead.”

“A lot of people are dead,” Methos says, peeling the label off his beer. “Joe--.”

“It doesn't seem fair,” Joe says softly, “a kid like that. It doesn't seem right.”

“It never does.”

“Go on, say it. Life isn't fair.” Joe looks tired, and lately, Methos thinks, he looks older. There have been a lot of kids for Joe, starting in Vietnam, or maybe even before; there have been a lot of deaths that aren't right.

“You don't want to hear me say it, Joe.” No, Joe wants something else. Hope, maybe, or justification-- the old platitudes, dressed up in shiny new words. Everything happens for a reason, Methos thinks. That one is older than Methos is.

“You loved Richie,” he says instead, “and you miss him. I might not have loved him, but I understand.” I warned you, he thinks. I warned you about this.

 

“If I live to be so old that I stop being interested in people because they might die someday--,” Joe says, but he stops, because the truth is, he'll never get that old, and he knows it. “Oh, hell, Methos.”

It's a good thing they're the only ones in the bar, because he doesn't say it quietly. But Methos sees in his face that he gets it, the way he didn't get it the first time, the way Mac may never get it.

You can afford to wait, with immortals. You can afford to reserve judgment, to see how things come out. There isn't time for that with mortals. You have to love them while they're alive, knowing that no matter how old they get they'll never get old enough.

Methos has known this for what feels like forever. It doesn't bear repeating. Instead he pushes the pretzels to Joe. It isn't an apology, because all he did was tell the truth when they asked him to. It's a stand-in for all the things he'll never say to Joe, to Mac-- for all the things they never said to Richie Ryan. They'll never be as old as he is, but he's been as old as they are, and he knows what it's like.


End file.
